By Reuters&bullet;
last updated:
15/06/2018

ZAGREB (Reuters) - A Bosnian court refused on Friday to extradite the former boss of soccer club Dinamo Zagreb to Croatia where he was sentenced to more than six years in prison for tax evasion and embezzling profits from player transfers.

Zdravko Mamic managed the Croatian club from the early 2000s until 2016 and was also a top executive at the club. The convictions date to crimes committed in 2008 and 2009, the court said. Mamic denies wrongdoing.

Mamic has dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship but Bosnia, like Croatia, does not extradite its citizens to other countries and will only do so under specific terms.

"There are no conditions for his extradition, which the court confirmed," Mamic's lawyer Zdravko Rajic told reporters after a hearing in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

Mamic came to Bosnia last week from Croatia ahead of the sentencing hearing.. He said he would fight for his innocence from Bosnia.

Two other former senior Dinamo officials, Mamic's brother and a tax official, were also sentenced for the same offences.

The three were convicted of embezzling 116 million kuna (£13.7 million) from transfers of players, and of tax evasion worth 12.2 million kuna.

Dinamo is Croatia's most successful club since

independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, winning 19 championships.

(Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

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